Planning for Retirement:

For Gary Johnson, 66, retirement is a smooth, toe-tapping jazz standard.
The leader of the Oklahoma City-based band the Silver-Tops lived in Ponca City for 30 years before retiring from his job as a chemical engineer five years ago. He moved to Oklahoma City to enjoy his golden years.

Figure at least 70 percent of your current income, experts say. Don’t look to Social Security to provide more than 39 percent of what you’ll need. Count on living to 78 — or longer. And, to be fully financially secure, factor in expenses for poor health.
If you make $50,000 a year and retire now at full retirement age, your nest egg, according to an AARP analysis, should be $664,100.

The personal savings rate in the United States is negative 1 percent, the poorest showing since the Great Depression.

While that figure fails to take into account some measures of net worth, such as increased equity in one’s home, it should stand as a stark reminder for those hoping to build a retirement fund, investment experts say.

Inertia, statistics show, accounts for much of the reason workers don’t save enough for retirement. Among those with employer-sponsored retirement plans, one in every four fails to enroll.
But when employers automatically enroll employees in plans with investments targeted to their retirement age — as many are now doing — only about one-fourth of those would-be nonparticipants opt out.